A Cambridge engineering company whose tiny shape-memory-alloy actuators sit inside smartphone cameras to focus and steady the picture.
Cambridge Mechatronics, often shortened to CML, designs very small, precise moving parts called actuators. Its speciality is shape memory alloy, a metal wire that changes length when heated by a small electric current. CML uses it to move camera lenses for autofocus and optical image stabilisation, the feature that keeps photos sharp when your hand shakes. The company says its actuators can be as thin as a human hair, create no magnetic interference and use less power than traditional designs. It says its technology has shipped in over 70 million smartphones, and it has also been developing chips that control the actuators, plus applications in augmented reality, wearables and a microfluidic patch pump for delivering medicine.
The company traces its roots to 1995, when Cambridge academic Tony Hooley founded it as 1-Limited with the goal of building the world's best loudspeaker. Around 2013 it sold its sound technology and was renamed Cambridge Mechatronics, focusing on smartphone cameras. We did not find a formal mission statement on the pages we read, so we do not quote one. What it does say is that it is a multidisciplinary engineering company, and its co-managing director, Andy Osmant, has described CML as the world leader in designing and controlling shape memory alloy actuators.
CML is based in Cambridge, UK, with a separate team in Asia that supports customers. Its customers include smartphone makers such as Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo and Huawei, and it earns income from licensing, engineering services and, increasingly, selling its own controller chips. By early 2024 it reported more than 700 patents pending or granted and 75 million actuators shipped. Its growth plans include getting its controller chips into more phones and finding uses outside phones, such as AR/VR, laptops, medical devices and drones.
A profile with Osmant, who joined as finance director in 2001 and is now co-managing director, credits the Cambridge-based engineering team as the heart of the company, and says CML was recruiting in particular for chip development. We did not find published detail about its culture or benefits, so we do not describe them. What the profile does show is a long-lived company with a long R&D horizon, which suggests a place where engineers can work on difficult problems over many years rather than chasing quick launches.
A company like this employs mechanical and materials engineers, electronics and chip designers, firmware and software engineers, test and quality specialists, manufacturing and supply chain staff, and the commercial, finance and legal teams that handle patents and licensing. Because everything it makes goes into a customer's product, there are also roles in working closely with customers on design. People who like physics and engineering and want to see their work inside everyday devices will find it a good fit.
Website: www.cambridgemechatronics.com
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